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eftychia: Me in kilt and poofy shirt, facing away, playing acoustic guitar behind head (Default)
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QotD

posted by [personal profile] eftychia at 05:25am on 2006-02-09 under

[Okay, I gotta juxtapose this fresh quote with the one that had originally been scheduled for tomorrow ...]

"I gave in my opening statement, senator, examples where President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt, have all authorized electronic surveillance on a far broader scale ..." -- United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 2006-02-06, I think. ( Windows Media Player, Quicktime) [Can someone confirm that this clip wasn't doctored? I wasn't by the radio then.] Confirmed -- thanks. (Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] razzle for putting it where I'd see it.)

"This administration has finally lost it. If they want to surprise me, senior cabinet officials will have to appear on the White House lawn in duck suits, beating each other with wiffle bats." -- [livejournal.com profile] badmagic, 2005-09-09 [Which, I suppose, explains why I can believe that Gonzales could commit a "thinko" regarding George Washington having tools for electronic surveillance, or other folks using electronic communication for Washington to spy upon.]

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There are 6 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] noblessa.livejournal.com at 12:31pm on 2006-02-09
Well, the Washington Post's transcript says the same thing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/06/AR2006020600931_pf.html

Its in the "Senator Grassley" section. Looks like confirmation to me.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] autographedcat.livejournal.com at 01:18pm on 2006-02-09
Anyone who knows me will know that I am anything but an administration apologist, and I had a good moment of jaw-dropping WTFness over the statement when I heard it.

To be fair, though, if you simply drop the word "electronic" from the statement, it becomes at least defensible, if yet to be substantiated.

Still, a heck of a mis-statement in opening remarks, no less. :)
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] pedropadrao.livejournal.com at 12:30am on 2006-02-10
Even if those previous presidents ordered surveillance of one sort or another without a warrant, Gonzales is making no sense, because the law has changed since FDR was around.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] dglenn.livejournal.com at 08:12am on 2006-02-10
Yah, after I got over my WTF, I classed it as a "thinko" -- that is, about as indicative of the speaker's ignorance or intent as a typo, but still oppotunistically mockable.

Though trying to imagine what would be involved in doing surveillance that broadly in Washington's time -- even if you throw in a scaling factor for population growth -- makes me think that the statement still lacks credibility.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] autographedcat.livejournal.com at 01:47pm on 2006-02-10
*grin* I never said it was credible. I said it was defensible, by which I mean that you could contruct a rational argument to defend it.

I still think that under scrutiny, it won't hold up, but that wasn't what I meant.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] dptwisted.livejournal.com at 04:20am on 2006-02-10
I always suspected those wooden teeth secretly held transmitters.
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